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big ugly bill
Democratic Voters Want Fighters, Not Cowardly Cavers
The establishment wing of the party has once again sold out the people they were elected to represent.
Nov 12, 2025
If there is one key lesson from last week's blowout victory for Democrats, it's that Democratic voters want fighters. In waiting less than a week after the elections to announce their unilateral surrender late on a Sunday night, the eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus who handed Trump and his Republican allies total victory in exchange for nothing sold those voters out.
While Democratic voters in the November 4th election were elated by the first triumph in quite a while, the cavers took the wind out of their sails. There's a serious danger that some of these constituents won't bother to vote in the 2026 elections. It could cost the Democrats the election and allow MAGA to keep control of the House and Senate, while impoverishing many poor and working-class Americans. With gerrymandering, there will likely be only about 40 competitive House districts (and six or seven competitive Senate races). Many of them will be likely decided by a few thousand (or even a few hundred) votes and there's a good chance that the disillusionment with Democratic cowardice could make the difference in deciding who controls both chambers of Congress.
The two biggest stars emerging from the November 4th elections are Zorhan Mamdani and Gavin Newsom. They're from different wings of the Democratic Party—Mamdani is an unyielding progressive while Newsom is generally a moderate. What they had most in common was their willingness in this election to be fighters.
While many Democrats were wringing their hands over Texas's midterm gerrymandering, which is likely to hand Republicans five House seats, Newsom came up with the idea to amend the California Constitution to pick up five House seats for Democrats. He managed to get it on the ballot, despite the opposition of some Democrats who argued that "two wrongs don't make a right." After being the leading voice in support of Proposition 10, Newsom's amendment won in a 20-point landslide.
The result is that the handsome and articulate governor is now the likely front-runner for the 2028 Democratic Presidential nomination.
On the other side of the country, Mamdani received over 50% of the votes in a 3-way race. He mobilized over 100,000 volunteers, brought out the greatest number of voters in a New York mayoral race in years, and held huge rallies of enthusiastic supporters. He won 70% of voters under age 45 and 75% of those under 30. Many of this age group are not regular voters but jammed the polls to vote for Mamdani. They're the future of the Democratic Party, if they continue to vote in such numbers.
With his fighting outsider campaign, Mamdani became one of the leading young faces in the Democratic Party.
The victory parties for Newsom's Proposition 10 and Mamdani's mayoral win were raucous, joyous, and filled with an overwhelming sense of relief.
But the eight moderate Senate cavers couldn't wait even a week to take the wind out of their sails. Many of them, including those who were first-time voters, may be so discouraged and disillusioned that they hey won't bother showing up at the polls next November.
It may be that Republicans would have never agreed to pass the extension to the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Sooner or later, Democrats who, unlike Republicans actually care about the well-being of SNAP recipients, may have had to let the Big Ugly Bill pass. But, honestly, what was the fucking rush? Why couldn't they wait for more than a week after the elections to cave? They could have at least taken the time to explain their actions to voters and then maybe given in around Thanksgiving so as not to spoil the holiday. But if they were so desperate to unilaterally surrender after letting the country suffer for over a month in return for a non-deal they could have gotten at the beginning, why was it worth bothering with a shutdown in the first place?
If the quick surrender of so-called "moderates" depresses many who voted Democratic on November 4th so much that they won't be motivated to return to the polls next November, the Democratic cowards caucus may have made it harder for the party to win in 2026.
In any case, it's clear that people who voted for Democrats and policies on November 4th wanted fighters, not cowards. The lesson is also clear: without fighters, we're lost.
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As the US Detains and Deports, Venezuela Reunites Families
A country labeled a dictatorship offered what this so-called democracy did not: return, reunification, and dignity.
Aug 05, 2025
In July 2025, the U.S. Congress passed a budget that commits at least $131 billion to expanding detention, deportation, and border militarization. It is the largest immigration enforcement package in modern U.S. history and one that most people are funding without knowing.
Public pension funds, university endowments, and municipal budgets are deeply invested in Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) machinery. If you pay into a retirement fund, attend a university, or live in a major city, your money might be helping detain someone. Your tax dollars already are.
The plan triples ICE’s funding, revives the failed border wall project, builds new jails for families, and allocates $10 billion in unregulated funds to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At the same time, up to 17 million people risk losing healthcare and millions of children face losing access to school meals.
These priorities are not accidental. They reflect a political strategy that treats migration as a threat to be neutralized rather than a consequence of U.S. policy. This budget doesn’t just expand infrastructure, it expands a racialized system of surveillance, incarceration, and profit, while shrinking legal protection, due process, and public oversight.
Here’s what the new immigration budget includes:
- $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement and deportation—a threefold increase;
- $45 billion to build new immigration detention centers, including for children and families;
- $46.6 billion for border wall construction, which is more than triple what U.S. President Donald Trump spent in his first term;
- $10 billion in unregulated DHS funding to “safeguard the border” without oversight;
- A daily detention capacity of 116,000 human beings, enough to fill a stadium with mothers, students, toddlers, and elders or to disappear the entire population of Lansing, Michigan or Athens, Georgia; and
- An 800 person limit on the number of immigration judges, worsening already record-breaking court backlogs and delaying due process for millions.
ICE Is Everywhere
ICE doesn’t operate alone. It dances with Palantir’s algorithms. It swallows data from school and Department of Motor Vehicles records. It whispers to local cops in sanctuary cities. It hides in contracts signed by universities that claim to care about inclusion. It is public and private, visible and invisible, and always expanding.
The border doesn’t stop at the border.
ICE shares tech, tactics, and training with local police across the U.S., especially in Black and Brown communities. The same algorithms used to deport migrants are used to lock up teenagers in Chicago, LA, and New York. The war economy is domestic, too.
Migration Is Not a Crisis; U.S. Policy Is
The people being detained and deported are not a crisis. They are the result of one. U.S. foreign policy, through sanctions, coups, climate extraction, and economic warfare, has destabilized entire regions and then criminalized those who flee.
Nowhere is this more visible than in Venezuela.
Years of U.S. sanctions have severely constrained Venezuela’s economy and pushed millions to migrate. A recent study in The Lancet Global Health found that unilateral economic sanctions lead to an estimated 564,000 deaths every year, mostly among children under five. The researchers concluded that sanctions are a form of economic warfare with deadly consequences, often as destructive as armed conflict. Venezuela is among the countries most severely affected.
A Stark Contrast: Venezuela’s Efforts to Reunite Families
Despite being locked out of international markets, denied access to its own reserves, and targeted by ongoing U.S. sanctions, the Venezuelan government has prioritized reuniting families separated by deportation. Flights have been organized to return Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. and neighboring countries. Deportees are met with medical care, housing support, and assistance. There are no billion-dollar detention centers. No ankle monitors. No private contractors. Just the political decision to bring people home with dignity.
This reflects a deeper difference. The United States continues to expand a war economy, one that profits from incarceration, surveillance, and militarized borders. Corporations like Palantir, CoreCivic, and GEO Group are major beneficiaries of immigration funding, alongside weapons manufacturers and data firms. In contrast, Venezuela’s response, under siege, has been to build on a peace economy rooted in social programs, community organization, and everyday resilience.
The United States fuels crises abroad—sanctions, coups, austerity—and then builds cages for those who flee.
Much of that work is led by women.
In Venezuela, Madres Víctimas del Fascismo have been organizing alongside the government to locate, support, and repatriate their children, many of whom were detained in the U.S. or in Latin American countries. These mothers have worked with consular authorities, spoken in public forums, and demanded state action to bring their families back together. Through their pressure, and the government’s cooperation, some have already seen their children return home.
This is what a peace economy looks like, one built on social programs, community organization, and state-supported reunification.
The Violence of the Border Enforcement Is the Violence of the Empire
The United States fuels crises abroad—sanctions, coups, austerity—and then builds cages for those who flee. Venezuela knows this intimately. Its economy has been blocked, its institutions targeted, and its people criminalized the moment they cross a border. And yet it was Venezuela that welcomed deported migrants with food, medicine, and housing; they were greeted with care. A country labeled a dictatorship offered what this so-called democracy did not: return, reunification, and dignity.
Who Is Complicit?
This system doesn’t operate in just one region. It’s not limited to Texas or Arizona. It’s embedded across the country, in contracts, databases, and quiet forms of cooperation.
Schools often share data, directly or indirectly, with ICE. Universities collaborate with DHS through software licensing and research grants. Investors, including public pension funds and university endowments, hold shares in GEO Group, Palantir, and other deportation profiteers.
The U.S. has made its priorities clear. It is willing to spend more to detain migrants than to house the hundreds of thousands living unhoused on the streets of its cities. It is expanding detention while limiting legal avenues for relief. It is responding to the consequences of its foreign policy with policing not accountability.
It’s not enough to say “Abolish ICE.” We must hold accountable every institution that feeds its machinery, from schools that share data, to universities that license surveillance tech, to investors profiting from migrant detention.
Migration is not a crime. U.S. sanctions are.
- End institutional cooperation with ICE
- Demand divestment from companies profiting off detention
- Organize against U.S. sanctions and intervention
The war economy is everywhere. So the resistance must be, too.
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How to Speak up for Medicaid This August
This summer, you have a rare opportunity to help save American democracy by advocating against the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s mega-bill.
Aug 01, 2025
As members of Congress return to their districts for what is traditionally called the August congressional recess, Republican members will be working overtime to sell their constituents on the benefits of the Trump mega-bill (technically the “One Big Beautiful Bill”).
Republicans know well that this August will determine the outcome of the crucial 2026 midterm elections. In a memo from the Republican National Campaign Committee (NRCC) obtained by Politico, GOP members of Congress were advised that:
While the election is still more than a year away, this August in-district work period is an opportunity to go home and sell your work to your constituents. With the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law by President Trump just a few weeks ago, this is a critical opportunity to continue to define how this legislation will help every voter and push back on Democrat fearmongering.
The NRCC memo advises GOP members of Congress not to let Democrats define the agenda on Medicaid by stressing public support for eliminating waste and fraud and by instituting work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries. Polling suggests that Republicans have their work cut out for them. Research conducted for The Wall Street Journal found that:
The findings show Republicans’ challenges in selling the law’s benefits as they try to hold their slim control of the House and Senate in next year’s midterm elections, and the poll demonstrates how Democrats might be able to capitalize on voters’ skepticism to stage a comeback. Overall, the law drew 42% support and 52% opposition, performing slightly worse than Trump himself in the poll. It generated negative marks from 94% of Democrats, 12% of Republicans, and 54% of independents.
On the other side of the call, The Wall Street Journal research shows there is support for work requirements and increased checks on Medicaid eligibility. Furthermore, as always, there is support for tax cuts. Much will depend on how the issues are framed. Right now, there is a lot of blank space for Democrats or Republicans to work with. Polling from CNN finds that only 27% say that they have been following debate over U.S. President Donald Trump’s mega-bill “very closely.”
In these times, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and that there is little or nothing that one person can do to make a difference. Nothing could be further from the truth. This August you have a rare opportunity to help save American democracy by speaking out against the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s mega-bill. Reach out to your member of Congress and find out how you can attend a town meeting and speak out in support of Medicaid. If your member of Congress is not holding a town meeting, stop by their district office and share your concerns with congressional staff. Trust me as a former congressional district office staffer, your presence will be noted.
If you have never gone to a congressional town meeting or met with a member of Congress, it can be intimidating. There is no need to be nervous. Remember that they work for you! Here are some simple tips that might be helpful:
- Remind your member of Congress that according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicaid pays for the care of fully 60% of patients in nursing homes.
- Tell your member of Congress that according to the American Hospital Association, 40% of all the births in this country are paid for by Medicaid.
- Convey the real-world impact of what cuts to Medicaid would be. Do not fall into the trap of defending Medicaid as a government program. Instead, talk about anyone you know who relies on Medicaid. If you rely on Medicaid, you should share that. Polling data shows that fully 60% of Americans know someone who depends on Medicaid. The more personal you make the issue of Medicaid, the more effective you will be.
- If you live in a rural area, tell your member of Congress that their vote for the Trump mega-bill will hurt your local hospital. According to the National Rural Health Association, “the bill will limit access to care for all rural patients by ending healthcare coverage for rural residents nationwide and putting financial strain on rural facilities who care for them.” Do not talk about rural hospitals in general, talk about your local hospital and why it is important.
- Provide the “why” in your Medicaid advocacy. Tell your member of Congress that you know that Medicaid is being cut to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.
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